hair algae eaters - seahare?

[glumslum]

as the title says I'm looking for a seahare to take out the hair algae in my tank pm me. also if anybody got any other ideas of which other invert will wipe out the algae I'm all ears.

[FarmerTy]

That urchin you got from me should do it. The sea hare will more than likely wipe it out, die of starvation, and then the algae will come back again after it dies. It's not the best solution.

How old is your system?

Sent via Tapatalk

[glumslum]

i thought of that but only seen him eat off the glass not the live rocks especially mid to bottom of the tank. and a little over a year did do a transfer to a new tank due to leak. i know it will die from starvation after it wipes out the algae figured i will give it to someone else that needs one after it did the job idk lol

[FarmerTy]

I mean, he'll more than likely do the job but the hair algae will just grow back. I was asking the age of the tank to see if it was still maturing or not. Perhaps lowering the amount you feed or the photo period of the lights may help. Is your tank really crowded?

Sent via Tapatalk

[FarmerTy]

You can also relocate the urchin. He was mostly on the rocks for me and only occasionally was on the glass.

Sent via Tapatalk

[Sascha D.]

These are more safe than a sea hare.

Linkia Star

Starry Blenny / Lawnmower

Foxface

Some hermits eat hair algae if easier food isn't available, but you get a host of other problems

Turbo Snails

Fuzzy Chitons

This is not an all inclusive list, just what I think is easiest to maintain.

[saltynick]

no, sea hares are the best option and reducing phosphates, linkia stars die more often, especially if the water quality is not ideal. they often die in pristine water. lawnmowers are great and have good personalities, but most blennys need detritus witch i am sure he has, we all do but the best option is to lower phosphates feed food that contains no phosphates like, the Elos brand yes it cost more but it is made by a company that enjoys the hobby too,not just a big name trying to make profit . Strain frozen food in a net wih RO/DI water.RO water, will work, DI resin removes most of the phosphates though but remove as much as you can manually. Sacsha D is right about those guys! but linkia stars die very easily die. If there is a change in water chemistry even from a large water change. Remember these guys have been in 5 different types of water before they were ever ever in your tank.Remember foxfaces are posionous so be careful with those guys.reducing phospates, and feeding less amounts of quality foods will help, having a good skimmer and a GFO reactor will be the best things to do, and add dome grazing fish like tangs. I have completely removed green hair algae using these steps in many friends tanks.

[Makena95GT]

A note I read about rinsing frozen food:

Just a quick note on why I don't bother rinsing my frozen food.

Randy Farley-Holmes, a reefing guru chemistry buff, has quantified the phosphate addition of the rinse water of frozen foods and calculated it at roughly 1% of the phosphate content of the food itself. So basically, rinsing the frozen food gets rid of 1% of the phosphate addition of your frozen food. To give scale, that 1% of phosphate added from the rinsed water to 100 gallons of water would bump the concentration of the tank up roughly 0.0003 ppm.

Quoted from Randy:

"That amount washed away does not seem significant with respect to the "in tank" target level of about 50-100 times that level (say, 0.015 to 0.03 ppm), nor does it seem significant relative to the total amount of phosphate actually added each day in foods (which is perhaps 50-1000 times as much..."

Here's the article he wrote for reef keeping magazine, for those that like to read the nerdy stuff.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2012/3/chemistry

Sent via Tapatalk

I personally have just taken to manual removal, more water changes, and feeding every other day as well as a reduced photoperiod

[saltynick]

That's a good article! I got a lot of new info thanks, Some fish have small stomachs though and need to be feed small amounts 3 to 5 times a day,like anthias, even clown fish have stomachs the size it there eyes. You should check out YouTube - Americanreefchannel Mike Polleta- Phosphates and Feeding. He has been successful in the hobby for over 30 years and has some good tips I use. Very nice guy when I meet him, and is well respected in the hobby, some of us have his corals in are tank. You can use his advice, or not. He is constantly updating his tank and has a wealth of knowledge. I use his advice and like to save money on less water changes, if you have a large tank water changes can start to be expensive.20 to 25% water changes on a large tank over 100 gallons plus sump water volume added, can get pricey, if you use High Quality salt mix like hw-Marinemix my personal favorite that is used by most large public aquariums and the US EPA only uses this salt mix as a replacement for natural seawater and the brand has been around for over 50 years. they don't use anti-caking properties that cause that brown crap in salt mixing tanks or in salt containers if left in for a while you will see the stuff I'am talking about. it may cost more but you get a better product.like anything in life, for instance Mc Donald's taste good and most love it including me, but we all know its not the best quality food for us to eat every day. Other brands work great this is just my opinion and experience from 10 years of working in this hobby with coral whole salers in are area and working with marine biologist that also took the coral aqua culture course at Corpus,as I also took. Everyone can be extremely successful using different products and methods, so don't think I consider you less knowledgeable.I try to learn something new every day and did.I always listen to others for valuable info. Everyone has some knowledge others don't.